Language, History and Collective Memory - Syriac Studies Conference (20-24 July 2025)
I: 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS)
II: 19th Century Turabdin in Syriac Sources — A Contribution to the History of Late Ottoman
Empire (invited speakers only)
III: Sayfo 1915 — Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans
Preliminary Programme, dated 25.06.25
Sunday, 20 July 2025
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Arrival of the conference participants |
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15:00 |
Registration (Coffee) |
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16:00 |
Welcoming and Greetings |
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17:00 |
Gründler, Beatrice (FU Berlin): Kalila wa-Dimna and the role of the Syriac versions |
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17:20 |
Hartmann, Elke Shoghig(FU Berlin): The Ottoman Eastern provinces in the 19th century |
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17:40 |
Hölck, Lasse (FU Berlin): Natural Selection? Small scale indigenous groups between extermination, genocide and ethnocide. A global view from Latin American History |
Monday, 21 July 2025
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Section I 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS) |
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08:30 |
Registration |
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09:30 |
Kawther Najeeb Askar (SU Erbil): Deviation in Khamis Bar Qardahi’s Poem (ܢܲܦ̮ܫܵܐ ܣܲܘܝܵܐ ܘܲܪܓܼܝܼܓܼܵܐ): A Stylistic Study |
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10:00 |
Pritula, Anton (HSE University, Moscow): The Erbil Poetic Circle during the Syriac Renaissance Period: Manuscripts, Authors and General Features |
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10:30 |
Furman, Yulia (FU Berlin): Šurṭē: Prisoners of War or Arabic Militia? Evidence from Syriac Sources |
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11:00 |
Coffee Break |
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11:30 |
Younansardaroud, Helen (FU Berlin): An amulet scroll with incantations for an Assyrian woman from Ardishay (Urmia) |
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12:00 |
Gross, Simcha (FU Berlin): Divorcing Demons in Jewish Aramaic and Syriac: Reflections on Transmission and Religious Contact in Late Antique Iraq |
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12:30 |
Abousamra, Gaby (Lebanese University Beirut): A Syriac Magical Bowl in Manichaean Script |
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13:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00 |
Muraviev, Alexey (Moscow State University): Khizhniakova, Stanislava (HSE University): Eye diseases in Syriac Medieval Medical Literature |
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14:30 |
Čéplö, Slavomír (BBAW); DiRusso, Giovanni (Harvard University): Syriac linguistics in the age of AI |
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15:00 |
Grenert, Briana (Duke University): Religion in Syriac: A Word Vector Analysis with Simtho Data |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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16:00 |
Nieten, Rebekka (FU Berlin); Schewe, Stephanie (FU Berlin): Reciting and Chanting Holy Texts: The Syriac Tradition – a Sacred Bridge between Judaism and Islam |
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16:30 |
Samer Soreshow Yohanna (SU Erbil): Textual Study of “ܟܬܼܵܒܼܵܐ ܕܲܙܡܝܼܖ̈ܵܬܼܵܐ” by the Forgotten Author Father Elias Sher |
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17:00 |
Joy, Emy Merin (CEU, Vienna): Garshuni Malayalam and Suriyāni Malayalam: Introducing Some Syrian Christian Manuscripts from Kerala, South India |
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17:30 |
Mustață, Radu (Hebrew University of Jerusalem): New Words in Syriac from South India: The Witness of Kadavil Chandy Kattanar’s Poetry |
Tuesday, 22 July 2025
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Section I 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS) |
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09:00 |
Adnan Shibeeb Jasim Alhameedawi (University of Baghdad); Amel Adee Polus Baybuzi (SU Erbil): The Semantic Overlap of Phonetically Similar Roots in Syriac, Hebrew and Arabic: A Comparative Study |
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09:30 |
Himdad Abdulqahhar Muhammad (SU Erbil); Salam Neamah Hirmiz Hakeem (SU Erbil): A Stylistic Analysis of Symbolism in the Syriac Kurdish Poem ‘Shuraya da-qyamta’ |
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10:00 |
Mohammed Radhi Zower (University of Baghdad): The Scarcity of the Syriac 3rd Hamza: A Comparative Etymological Study |
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10:30 |
Laith Hasan Mohammed Al-Khailani (University of Baghdad): Pseudo-interrogative Sentences in Arabic and Syriac: A Comparative Study |
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11:00 |
Coffee Break |
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11:30 |
Barween Badri Tawfeeq (SU Erbil): Discovery of the Site of the Monastery of Sabrishoʿ in Adiabene: A Historical, Documentary and Archaeological Study |
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12:00 |
Randa Najeeb Yonan (SU Erbil); Amel Adee Polus Baybuzi (SU Erbil): The Signification of the Legal Term in the Personal Status Manuscript of Mar Timothy I: A Comparative Semitic Linguistic Study |
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12:30 |
Amer Abdullah Najm (University of Mosul): The Book of Prelates by Thoma d-Marga as a Source for Urbanism and Monasteries: An Urbanistic Study and Investigation |
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13:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00 |
Mary Fadhil Jabbo Antonee (SU Erbil): Repetition in Syriac Language: Its Types and Linguistic Purposes |
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14:30 |
Eramia, Rony (FU Berlin): David Barzani – His Biography and Literary Works |
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15:00 |
Luma Aphraim Khudher (SU Erbil): The Debate Between Cain and Abel: A Comparative Study in Syriac and Mesopotamian Literature and Jewish Traditions |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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16:00 |
Cherkashina, Anna (Tel Aviv University): New Textual Evidence for the “Syriac Treatise of Shem” |
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16:30 |
Birol, Simon (Universität Göttingen): Transmission and Reception of the Syriac Ahiqar story |
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17:00 |
Rucki, Mirosław (Casimir Pulaski Radom University, PL): References to Syriac in Talmud |
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17:30 |
Jasim, Anmar Abduljabbar (University of Al-Qadisiyya): Gravestone Inscriptions in the Church of the Monastery of Our Lady, Protector of the Crops, in Alqosh/ Mosul |
Wednesday, 23 July 2025
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Section I 3rd Arba’ilu International Conference on Syriac and Sureth Studies (3rd AICSSS) |
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09:00 |
Voigt, Rainer (FU Berlin): On the verbal stem morphology of Syriac |
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09:30 |
Edmonds, Alexander (Universität Münster): The last of Gilgāmeš. A Mesopotamian king in Theodore Bār Kōnay´s Kṯāḇā d-ˀeskōlyōn |
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10:00 |
Friestad, Kjetil (University of Agder, NOR): Pilgrimage practices of the Christians of Beth Qatraye in the 6th -8th centuries |
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10:30 |
Hager, Anna (University of Vienna): Defining the Terms "Assyrian" and "Suryān" in the Context of Modern Lebanon |
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11:00 |
Coffee Break |
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11:30 |
Aho, Shemunkasho (University of Salzburg): 150-jähriges Jubiläum der Begegnung von Patriarch Petrus IV. mit der Königin Victoria |
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12:00 |
BarAbraham, Abdulmesih (Munich): Regulation and Improvement of the Nestorian Districts in the Hakkari Region in the 19th Century |
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12:30 |
Turgut, Ramazan (Mardin Artuklu University, TR): The Church of the East in Qudshanis: Ottoman Policies, Internal Rivalries, and Western Intervention (19th–20th Century) |
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13:00 |
Lunch |
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Section II 19th Century Turabdin in Syriac Sources — A Contribution to the History of Late Ottoman Empire |
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14:00 |
Talay, Shabo (FU Berlin): Turabdin in the 19th century – an overview |
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14:30 |
Bcheiry, Iskandar (Chicago SOK): Sacred Places in Ṭūrʿabdīn in a Collection of Syriac Orthodox Archives from the Late Ottoman Period |
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15:00 |
Atas, Nicolas (KU Leuven, BEL): Ṭuroyo Manuscripts from the Sachau Collection in Berlin as a Source for the History of the Turabdin Region in the 19th Century |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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16:00 |
Birol, Simon (Universität Göttingen): The Description of Encroachments and Plunderings in the Manuscripts of Turabdin from 19th century |
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16:30 |
Kouriyhe, Yousef (FU Berlin):Western Missionaries in 19th century Turabdin and the Reaction of the Syriac Orthodox |
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17:00 |
Üzel, A.-S. Barbara (FU Berlin):Notable Figures of 19th century Tur Abdin |
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17:30 |
van Ginkel, Jan (FU Berlin): On the informal Connections between Syriac Orthodox communities in Eastern Turkey and the Syriac Communities in India at the End of the 19th and Early 20th Century |
Thursday, 24 July 2025
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Section III Sayfo 1915 — Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans |
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09:30 |
Barthoma, Soner (Uppsala Universitet, SWE): Early Results from a Survey Study on Community Resilience among Assyrians in Turkey |
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10:00 |
Hofmann, Tessa (FU Berlin): Sayfo 1915 — Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Genocide of Assyrians/Arameans |
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10:30 |
Ninos, Sanherib (Frankfurt University): The Assyrian/Aramean Genocide of World War I: Memory, Identity and Recognition of the ‘Sayfo’ in the European Diaspora |
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11:00 |
Coffee Break |
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11:30 |
Zeitoune, Abboud (Wiesbaden): Role of Naum Faiq in documenting the Sayfo period |
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12:00 |
Binder, Matthias (Marburg University): Theology of the Sayfo? A survey of discourses within the Syriac Orthodox Church |
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12:30 |
Mor Polycarpus A. Aydin (Netherlands SOK): Faith, Liturgy, and Collective Memory: The Syriac Orthodox Church’s Response to Sayfo |
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13:00 |
Lunch |
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14:00 |
Beth Turo, Yawsef (Enschede, NL): New Eyewitness Accounts of the Sayfo published in Turkiye |
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14:30 |
Abdalla, Michael (Poznań University, PL): Nisibis and Its Population at the Turn of the 19th and 20th Centuries |
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15:00 |
Yildiz, Efrem (University of Salamanca, ESP): The written and oral sources from the Botan region on the Assyrian genocide |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break |
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16:00 |
Al-Jeloo, Nicolas (Kadir Has University, Istanbul): The Story of the Massacre of Assyrians in the District of Cizre, 1915 |
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16:30 |
Talay, Shabo (FU Berlin): Sayfo in Bsorino – an oral report from 1968 |
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17:00 |
Parween Shamoon Mate (SU Erbil): We Will not Forget Sayfo |
